Based on field diaries, interviews and secondary data, we reconstructed the mobility of a person, Alecsandro, a former prison survivor, and a motorcycle, a Honda Pop, through different regions of Brazil. Low-cylinder motorcycles are basic instruments of precarious and criminalized work that connect informal, illegal and legal markets between different regions of Brazil. We argue that marginal mobilities of people and goods help us to understand “coronelatos” and “factions” as political logics over markets, which also produce violence and inequality in small and medium-sized cities across Brazil.

Keywords:
mobility; illegal markets; factions; coronelato